Page:The Queens of England.djvu/543

MARY THE SECOND. 493 circumstances caused William and Mary not only to dismiss Marlborough from his office at court, but also to forbid the ap- pearance of Lady Marlborough there, and moreover to com- mand Anne to dismiss them from her service. Anne, who up to a late period of her life was, as is well known, completely bewitched with the Marlboroughs, refused to comply, and hence the permanent coldness which took place between Mary and her sister. It was perhaps inevitable that, under the circumstances, those unhappy alienations and heartburnings which too generally at- tend royalty, should have been no strangers to the court of William and Mary. But with all -William's faults, his steady regard for the liberties of the nation entitle him to a high place in the regard of England ; and with all Mary's faults, her wise and strong government— her steady attachment to Protestant- ism, Stuart as she was— and her conjugal affection and pro- priety under many mortifications— mark her as one of the most estimable and distinguished sovereigns that ever sat on the British throne. Her anxiety for the decorum of religion in one instance betrayed her into a measure which reminds us of some enact- ments urgently demanded by a religious section of the com- munity at this moment, who may draw some idea from the success of Oueen Marv in such legislation of what would be the result of their aim if brought to a similar trial. "At an early period of her regnal labors," says Miss Strickland, "the queen requested her council to assist her in framing regula- tions for the better observance of the Sabbath. All hackney carriages and horses were forbidden to work on that day, or their drivers to ply for customers. The humanity, however, of this regulation was neutralized by the absurdity of other acts She had constables stationed at the corners of streets, who were charged to capture all puddings and pies on their progress to bakers' ovens on Sundays, and such ridiculous scenes in the streets took place, in consequence of the owners fighting fiercely for their dinners, that the laws were suspended amid universal laughter." Mary's chief pleasures, and almost her only sources ot expenditure during her husband's continual and long absences, were building palaces and laying out gardens. Under her superintendence chiefly arose Kensington Palace ; and the new portion of Hampton "Court, with the garden there, is still